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map requests - Printable Version

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map requests - CzechTexan - 01.07.2009

There are two maps that I'd like to have. One is of the Caucasus and the other is of east-central Texas.
I can texture and populate these maps myself if someone else could get me started with the basic map_C, T, H, etc.

Caucasus: Just need the area inside the red square but the larger yellow square is preferred.
[Image: caucasus2.jpg]

Texas: The area inside the square is preferred.
[Image: TEXAS.jpg]
This is the area which I know best. I live in central Texas but I also have a brother living in east TX so I have to include that area to fly over his town. A larger area would be good but probably too big to map. Maybe someone can help me out?

- Redwulf__32 - 01.07.2009

Texas map looks interesting, looks like it's approx. 200x200 miles, not prohibitive - can be done IMHO. I'll have time in about 2 weeks (no 2 weeks jokes please Smile ) Could get you set up with the map_c, map_h and map_t stuff quite easily, I'll be getting back on track with my Denmark 1:1 at that time. What scale do you prefer? 1:1?

On a sidenote, I think it would be a good thing to have maps of bases/areas where the USAAF/USN/USMC (not to mention RCAF/RAF) actually trained during WWII, could make for some interesting 'noob' type scenarios.

Re: map requests - pursuivant - 01.07.2009

CzechTexan Wrote:There are two maps that I'd like to have. One is of the Caucasus and the other is of east-central Texas.

I'd go for the Caucasus myself, just because the terrain would be more interesting and it would be easier to populate the map because you can use existing objects and textures. I also believe that the area is relatively thinly populated and hasn't changed that drastically in 60 years, which also makes populating the map easier.

If you do decide to to do Central Texas, you've got a real chore ahead of you. You'd need to do custom ground textures to get those rectangular American fields to look right, and you'd need to make a whole bunch of custom objects to make the buildings look good.

Even worse, you'd run up against the problems which I believe led agracier to abandon his map of the Low Countries - that is, lots of relatively flat terrain, lots of towns (and other ground objects) and a landscape which has radically changed over the last 60 years. While you might have plenty of access to local historical data, you'd have to spend a lot of time looking at 1930s and 40s Jeppson charts and survey maps if you wanted to recreate World War 2-Era Texas. If you want with 2009 Texas, you've got the whole problem of putting in highways, skyscrapers, modern airport facilities and so forth, which makes object creation and map population even worse.

The only way out of all those boxes would to be to go with a "fictional" Texas which looks like someplace in Europe, Russia or East Asia. Personally, I'd find that unsatisfying. But, were you to do a 1945-era Dallas-Fort Worth map, and do it right, it would be a masterpiece, and it would open the door for all sorts of other North American maps. That would provide grist for all kinds of "Axis Triumphant" and "Cold War Gone Hot" scenarios, which I'd personally find interesting.

- CzechTexan - 01.07.2009

Really interesting comments from both of you. I like your opinions on the Texas map. I haven't really decided yet how to do it though. I really just wanted an area where I live, kinda like Fabianfred wanted a Thailand map because he lives there.

I wanted to have the modern-day airfields but there were also WW2 training fields in this region too.
British pilots were trained at Terrell which is about 30 minutes drive east of Dallas. The museum at Love Field, Dallas also has good info about the region during that time period. Waco also had a large air base and Killeen now has modern-day Fort Hood, the largest military base in U.S. These are just some of the military airfields in this region.
So, all of those places would be interesting to have on a map.

I suppose the best way to do this is to be 1940s-50s era but with some modern-day airfields etc. splashed in. Modern-day skyscrapers and such would be too demanding. I'm not the best at map-making so my limitations may lead to some unsatisfaction.

One thing about the farm fields is that nowdays, yes, there are large farms with square fields with a mix of smaller irregular fields/pastures but in the 1940s there were many more smaller farms with smaller fields. The country was much more rural with a large percentage of the population being farmers. Even many of the small towns of today had larger populations than they do now.
Period aerial maps would help with this. I suppose I could make 2 maps.

Redwulf_32, If you want to do this, I'd be much obliged to you. I prefer a 1:1 scale. I can wait for however long it takes. I'm not in a rush. I actually thought about this project several months ago (I was waiting like a fool for someone else to make it haha!).

I was hoping someone else could make a Caucasus map since we really do need it. I thought Agracier would help with that but I guess he got busy with other projects. I could make an attempt at it but I need those necessary files to get started.
Thanks for your interest! :lol:

- KG64_Cnopicilin - 02.07.2009

ooh I was too late, there are few ppl wanting to make it :lol:

- CzechTexan - 02.07.2009

KG64_cnopicilin Wrote:ooh I was too late, there are few ppl wanting to make it :lol:

LOL ~ You got my joke!

- CzechTexan - 02.07.2009

KG64_cnopicilin Wrote:ooh I was too late, there are few ppl wanting to make it :lol:

LOL ~ You got my joke!

- KG64_Cnopicilin - 02.07.2009

I just need a project, it doesn't have to be this, I am kind of bored to align my coastline in sri lanka, I dont even know how to save?!?

- pursuivant - 02.07.2009

CzechTexan Wrote:I really just wanted an area where I live, kinda like Fabianfred wanted a Thailand map because he lives there.

I can understand that, and I'm not trying to discourage you, but, well, modeling even part of Texas would be a Texas-sized project. That might be frustrating for a beginner, which is why I suggested going for the "easier" map.

I know that Texas was much more rural in the 1940s. My point about the shape of the fields is that U.S. farmland tends to have lots of rectangular and square fields, due to the fact that most land in the U.S. was sold off in pre-surveyed units by the government and subdivided from there. Things in Texas are slightly different, since the Spanish colonized the land first, but Texas sure doesn't look like the Western Europe, Russia, or anyplace else outside of the U.S., so you'd need to make custom ground textures.

What you could do, which might be easy and fun, is create a "Spanish Texas" with airfields, roads and a couple of big towns. Use the STRM data for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, then use the ground textures from the Crimea or Stalingrad map, since they might be about the right color, and would convey the idea of big, empty grasslands. (A lot of the "dusty" nature of modern-day Texas comes from overgrazing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before then it was dry grassland.)

You could use a number of Egypt objects (viewtopic.php?t=14977) to simulate Spanish adobe houses and a few of the stock objects from the Russian maps to model wooden buildings. For practice doing cities, you could model Dallas and Fort Worth as two large towns using stock factories, stone buildings and the like.

Then, once you've got your basic map, with roads, railroads, towns and airfields laid out you can keep playing with it, building your skills with autopopulating the map, building custom objects, and so forth.

- CzechTexan - 02.07.2009

You make it sound like central and east Texas is a desert dust bowl which it is not. Maybe you're thinking more of west Texas. Central TX has some of the most fertile blackland soil in the US. Yes, we do have droughts and summers do get hot and dry but there are no dust storms like in west Texas where the land was over-grazed by cattle and farmers used bad methods back then.
And much of east Texas is of pine forests and is a little more green due to storms from the Gulf.

Like you said, the land is more like the steppe of Russia with large open grasslands before the colonization. Really the only colonizing done by the Spanish (and Mexicans) was at San Antonio and some other towns in the south. They were here in "name only." The settling was done by American immigrants so much of the state has an "American" influence rather than Spanish.

You'll be hard pressed to find an adobe building around here. Houses (especially WW2 time) have a western-European/American look to them with white being the most common color. A large portion of the population is of immigrant families from Germany and the Czech lands and buildings show this. These types of buildings can be found in the custom objects we already have.

New textures might have to be made for the farms so we'll see how it goes. Cotton fields were more abundant at that time so that might need a special texture.

- pursuivant - 05.07.2009

CzechTexan Wrote:You make it sound like central and east Texas is a desert dust bowl which it is not.

You're right. I was thinking more of the panhandle and West Texas. I'm not familiar with the area around DFW, so I wasn't sure where the green and fertile parts give way to the dry and dusty parts, and I wasn't sure how much Spanish settlement there was in the area. That's the reason I put quotes around "Spanish Texas." The custom textures for black soil and cottonfields don't seem like too much of a stretch, and based on what you've said, it makes sense to use objects from the Slovakia and Germany maps.

Texas would be a fun map to fly over, just because it would be the only North American map in the game. I can think of all sorts of fun scenarios already. I wish you the best of luck with your project and hope to see it soon.